Maharashtra local body elections put off till further notice

The elections were scheduled to be held on August 18. File pic

As expected, the 96 municipal council and panchayat elections were put off till further notice, on Thursday. Coincidentally, the state government also decided to elect city council, city panchayat and village sarpanchs directly from the people instead of elected representatives.

The State Election Commission said in a statement that the decision has come in view of the hearing of the other backward class quota in the Supreme Court. The next hearing is on July 19, when the court is expected to decide on the empirical data provided by a dedicated commission for OBCs.

The elections were scheduled to be held on August 18 and a model code of conduct was put in place last week. The SEC said the code has been lifted with immediate effect. "The next scheduled/notification will be issued as soon as possible," it added.

Also read: Maharashtra: NCP to give 27 pc reservation to OBC candidates in local body polls

With the OBC quota simmering in political circles, the new government had said that it will request the SEC to delay the polls that were announced. It seems that the SEC has granted the government's wish.

On another front, the Eknath Shinde-Devendra Fadnavis government has been receiving complaints from their party colleagues and others, with regard to biased delimitation of civic wards. Further restructuring of wards has been demanded in major civic corporations that are expected to go to polls. The redrawing exercise, if undertaken, will need more time and may further delay the corporation polls, including Mumbai's.

The government pushed for reversing the MVA's decision to scrap a provision under which the municipal council and panchayat presidents, and village sarpanch are elected by the elected representatives.
The erstwhile BJP-Sena government had the provision of electing the chiefs directly from the people, but things changed after 2019. Henceforth, the previous scheme will be in place. The terms of Zilla Parishad president and vice-presidents have been extended by three months in case they come to an end any day soon.